


Hearts and Scars

by allimarie_xf



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 7x05 tag, Arrow (TV 2012) Season 7 Speculation, BUT I did write it with EBR's spoiler teaser in mind SO, F/M, Feelings, Fluff, No Spoilers, Season/Series 07, also it got a little smuttier than I thought it would, because I incorporated a few things we learned about Olicity's headspace into this fic, more tags if/when i add chapters, post 7x09, reunion kiss, technically this is speculation, what can i say i was inspired
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-08-23 08:48:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16615763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allimarie_xf/pseuds/allimarie_xf
Summary: This is a place for me to put season 7 Olicity drabbles, ficlets, and one shots.Ch. 1: Season 7 post-prison REUNION KISS.Ch. 2: Oliver Queen publicity press tour!





	1. Hearts and Scars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post-prison reunion kiss scene (speculation)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Possibly canon-compliant; inspired by EBR's tease about the reunion kiss as well as some stuff Oliver and Felicity independently said in 7x05, which makes me think they might each be ready to move forward with a lot less angst than I previously thought was possible.
> 
> Oliver said: “My father pushed people away. He kept secrets. And I made those same mistakes. If I choose to break the cycle, I'm gonna do it my way."
> 
> Felicity said: “I was pissed about [Oliver deciding to go to prison]! I should have visited him more. I should have been able to prevent this! I thought that the worst thing that could happen was me losing my husband to prison. What if I lose him permanently?”

 

The door opened and finally he was there in front of her, no walls between them but those of their own making.

His face was nearly unrecognizable, brutish and covered in scrapes and bruises, a darkened brow and that long beard.

Felicity was frozen in place by his sudden strangeness, and by the need to get this right. But then she saw his eyes. “Oliver.”

And she had no memory of moving toward him, but suddenly she was holding his face in her hands, scanning his injuries, reassuring herself that he was  real, that he was okay. He turned his cheek to her palm and closed his eyes.

“Felicity, I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry.”

“Shh.” She brushed her thumbs soothingly along his jaw, letting him rub his cheeks against her fingers as she inspected the cuts on his face. “Oliver.”

Oliver slid his hands gently over her hips, wrapping his arms around her waist but afraid to hold her too tightly. Afraid that this might all yet still be a dream, or, worse, that it was real and that his eagerness might somehow drive her away. They had been apart for over 6 months, and he knew that just like him, she’d been through a lot. He couldn’t be sure that what he wanted was what she needed.

He opened his eyes looked at her, afraid but needing to show her that he was done keeping secrets.  

Felicity’s breath hitched in her chest as she recognized that the only wall between them now was made up of her own residual anger and guilt.

He was leaning down, slowly, deliberately, eyes on her lips. He was going to kiss her, and she wanted to kiss him so, so badly, but she needed their first kiss to be completely honest. “Oliver.”

He paused his descent, his hooded eyes meeting hers.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Oliver’s eyebrows lifted, but she continued speaking before he could say anything. “I was so, so angry with you, and a part of me just wanted to..p-punish you for what you did. But -”

“Felicity.” Oliver’s eyes had softened at her confession. “You had every right to be angry. And I want to talk about this. I do.  And more than that I want to show you. That I’m done keeping secrets. I’m done pushing people away.”

She nodded, looking up at him with wide eyes.

“But right now I really want to kiss you.” He expelled a nervous breath. “Can I kiss you?”

She wet her lips in unconscious anticipation. “Please.”

He lowered his head and she stood on her toes to meet him.

Their lips met gently, and Felicity was almost overwhelmed by the press of skin against skin after spending so long apart from him. She held his face in her hands and brushed her lips over his, feeling no hurry to deepen the kiss. The soft, chaste touch was more than enough after so many nights spent trying to remember that feeling, trying to recreate it while pressing the back of her hand to her lips.

She pulled back just far enough to meet his eyes. He was looking at her with such love and adoration that even he seemed caught off guard by it, and her heart started hammering in her chest as the moment stretched between them.

They were going to be okay.

Oliver’s eyes flicked to her mouth and he lifted a hand to her face, caressing her bottom lip with his thumb in apparent fascination. “Felicity.”

She turned her head and pressed a kiss against his thumb before opening her lips and licking it, sucking it into her mouth. She met his eyes and suddenly that familiar heat was sparking between them as if no time had passed.

They were going to be better than okay.

Oliver was breathing shallowly, eyes locked with Felicity’s as she teased his thumb with her lips and teeth and tongue until the pull of her sexy mouth proved too tempting, and he leaned down suddenly, stopping her with his mouth.

He pressed a dozen open mouthed kisses over her lips, taking conscious pleasure in all the things he had missed most about kissing her: her taste, the pressure of her lips, their fullness, the feel of her breath panting against his mouth, her little moans of pleasure. His hands were buried in her hair and hers were roaming up and down his back, pulling him toward her as close as she could get.

And then he slid his hands down her body to cup her ass, and she sank bonelessly against him with a groan. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around him out of long habit, giving him the perfect opportunity to turn his head and slide his tongue into her mouth, tasting her fully for the first time in half a year. She accepted him eagerly, stroking against his tongue and sucking his bottom lip into her mouth as she grazed her fingernails through his short hair.

They were going to be amazing.

Eventually Oliver realized he had turned them so that he had Felicity pressed up against the wall, his rock hard cock grinding into her. She was meeting his thrusts in a perfect counter rhythm.

He pulled away slightly to press a line of kisses down her neck. “Felicity.”

“Mmmm.” She leaned her head back against the wall, giving him better access.

His lips reached her collarbone, and he pulled her jacket aside so his mouth could follow his desire.

“Oh god, Oliver.” She slipped a finger under his chin and pulled his face back up to hers, nipping and sucking and playing with his lips between deep kisses.

Not able to stop, Oliver spoke between kisses. “Felicity.”

“Hmm?”

He gathered his willpower, meeting her kisses but not deepening them, disengaging his tongue and then his lips, pulling back enough so that she had no choice but to meet his eyes.

And when she did, her head cleared immediately because the earnest look in his eyes was one that immediately recalled various marriage proposals and vows from their long, complicated, love-filled history.

“Let’s go home.”

She nodded and leaned down to kiss him one last time before they left this place forever and began the rest of their lives together, never again to part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, my muse definitely has a mind of its own. Here's a thing I did! I hope you enjoyed it! Lemme know! :D


	2. Green Arrow Exposed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Oliver Queen publicity tour gets an unscripted guest appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pure, self-indulgent fluff and fun :)

Oliver settled in to the plush loveseat and looked out over a sea of faces in the studio audience. This was his third of several planned media appearances that Dinah had somehow convinced him were necessary in order to bolster public confidence in his ability to work with the SCPD.

Oliver had doubts as to whether the publicity was actually doing anyone any good, but he was willing to reserve judgment. The first appearance hadn’t been terrible; he’d been interviewed by a respected news anchor who’d asked concrete questions about his time as the Green Arrow and his plans going forward with the SCPD. The second appearance, however, had been on a local talk show, and the hosts had seemed more interested in hashing through some of his more embarrassing youthful exploits than discussing any of the good he’d done for the city since then. He’d managed to stop himself from walking off set in the middle of filming, but afterward he’d wanted nothing more than to find his way into Felicity’s arms and let her remind him of all the ways he’d changed since those days. Unfortunately, Felicity was in Central City assisting Team Flash with a case, so he’d gone home to wander forlornly through an empty, still half-unpacked apartment. He’d called her, just wanting to hear the sound of her voice, but apparently the case she was working on was pretty intense; she’d texted him back and he hadn’t had the heart to insist she call him back. 

“Are you ready, Mr. Queen?”

Oliver glanced over at the tall woman leaning toward him with her elbows on her desk. Maria Banks, host of an entertainment and pop culture television show. Oliver sighed internally. It wasn’t that he had anything against Maria herself; it was just that he didn’t understand how entertainment television had anything to do with him. He had almost refused, but Dinah had gone on and on about the need for him to have a friendly, personable image - one that the public could trust, seeing as how his cheerful mayoral image had been completely undermined by the fact that he’d been boldly lying to the cameras the whole time about not being the Green Arrow. It was a good enough point that Oliver had agreed, at the time, to go on the show. But that was before he learned that the format of this particular show was entirely live Q&A. 

His stomach swooped unpleasantly as he studied the faces in front of him, realizing that they were almost all women. And that every single one of them was staring at him intensely. 

He turned his head and met Maria’s expectant gaze, giving her one of his practiced public smiles. “I’m ready.”

Oliver beamed at the cameras as Maria began her show. “My guest tonight needs no introduction; you know him as Oliver Queen, wayward son and heir, miraculously rescued castaway, former Mayor of Star City, and last but not least, the Green Arrow!” 

Maria turned her head and stared at him in silent awe while the studio audience cheered loudly, as if listing his many identities had made her realize exactly who was sitting five feet away from her. For some reason, her discomfiture made Oliver feel a little more at ease. He smiled at her and bobbed his head pleasantly at the wildly screaming audience.

“Okay, Mr. Queen, as you might know, we are going to be taking questions from the phones and the internet, but to start off we’ll take questions right here from our live studio audience.” She gestured toward the line that had formed in front of a standing microphone. “Beginning now. Hello, what’s your name?”

The microphone was only about ten feet in front of Oliver, so he had no choice but the look the woman in the eyes as she spoke. “Hi, my name’s Andrea, and I just wanted to tell you, Oliver, that I think you’re a hero. You’ve done so much for this city and I love you.”

Oliver’s smile froze on his face as stared back at her, wondering if she expected him to reply. Thankfully, Maria knew how to do her job.

“I’m sure Mr. Queen appreciates that, Andrea. Do you have a question?”

“Oh, yes, um.” Her eyes remained fixed on Oliver. “Will you go out on a date with me?”

Oliver’s jaw dropped as he scoffed in disbelief. He waited for Maria to save him again, but after a moment of silence he realized he was on his own. “Um. Thank you, I do appreciate your support. But, uh,” he laughed uncomfortably, “I’m married.” He stopped talking, waiting while the woman stood there staring at him. “Happily.” 

She was still standing there. “So that’s a no?”

A small disbelieving laugh escaped his lips before he could stop it. “Yeah. That’s a no.” 

“Next question, please!”

“Hi. My name is Paige Duchamps, and what I want to know is: who takes care of the Green Arrow? You’ve been taking care of Star City for years, but who takes your poor, broken body and rubs it back to life?”

Oliver choked on his breath at her obvious sexual innuendo. He was acutely aware of the live cameras pointing at him, and the fact that his entire purpose for being here was to polish up his public image. Somewhere in the back of his head he was aware that being rude on live television would probably work against that goal. “I….” He just didn’t know where to begin, and his practiced charisma was utterly failing him. 

The host once again stepped in to his rescue. “Ms. Duchamps, I believe Mr. Queen already mentioned that he has a wife, who I am sure is quite capable in that capacity. Thank you.”

The minutes wore on, and Oliver entertained several more audience questions that all followed a similar theme. Oliver had always tried to ignore the day-to-day shifts in public opinion of the Green Arrow, choosing instead to focus on the good that he was trying to do, though he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been discouraged whenever the city seemed to turn against him. Still, he had never been aware of the very particular type of support that was overwhelmingly present in that room: people (mostly, but not entirely, women) who assumed he was alone and lonely; mentally, emotionally, and physically neglected and in need of their personal help and love. And now, given the chance, they were absolutely jumping at the chance to offer it to him. 

“You must have been so lonely all those years, hiding your identity, unable to confide in anyone. How did you get through it?” 

“You’ve spent years risking your life, your peace, and your body, all while being hunted, villainized, and sent to prison! You deserve so much better than that. Is there any reward I can give you? 

“You really just look like you need to be kissed, and I would love to be the one to do it. Would you kiss me?”

Oliver’s ability to remain pleasant and affable was eroding with every question. It wasn’t the repetitiveness of their questions that bothered him, though that was annoying. Neither was it the overtly sexual suggestiveness, which once might have boosted his ego but now just made him extremely uncomfortable. Rather, it was the fact that all of them blatantly disregarded Felicity’s existence, as if she weren’t important to him, as if she wasn’t capable of providing the love and support that they assumed he was starved for. It was taking all of his willpower to avoid setting the record straight on all the very important roles she played in his life, but he bit his tongue because he and Felicity hadn’t talked about whether or not she was comfortable with the public scrutiny that went along with being outed as a vigilante.

By the time Maria announced they were going to start taking questions from the phones, he was almost completely out of patience.

“Hi, you’re Live with Maria, did you have a question for Oliver Queen?”

“Hi Maria, yes, I do.” The voice that came through the speakers had Oliver sitting up in his seat immediately. “Mr. Queen, I’ve been listening to your answers and it seems to me like everyone’s been assuming you were working  _ alone  _ all those years as the Green Arrow, but I noticed that you haven’t come out and said whether or not that’s true. So would you care to clarify whether or not you were, in fact, working alone?”

Oliver took a deep breath, a smile spreading over his face as he spoke with confidence. “I was  _ never  _ alone.” He swept his gaze over the audience; the faces he saw seemed distinctly startled. 

“Oh. Well that’s surprising. Are you saying you had a partner?”

Oliver sat back in his chair, warming to the line of questioning. “Not exactly. At first I sought out help only when I needed it.”

“Ah, so you employed consultants?”

Maria cut in. “I think we should probably move on to our next -”

Oliver waved her into silence, shaking his head and speaking directly to her. “Please, I’d like to answer these questions.” He continued speaking, changing his tone to address the woman on the phone. “At first I thought I could make do with consultants, part-time assistance, yes. But what I really needed was partners. People I could trust with my secrets and my life.” 

“Hmm. That  _ is  _ very interesting. So how did you end up with these particular partners? Did you hold auditions or something?”

Oliver laughed, genuinely amused by her unconventional humor, like always. “No, it was completely by accident. I found myself in the company of a trustworthy person who also possessed unmatched tactical and combat skills. I could have searched for years and never found a more qualified brother-in-arms, but somehow he was there for me. Before I even realized I needed him.”

“It sounds like you two were a perfect team.”

Oliver paused, musing. “We worked well together, but I wouldn’t say we were a  _ team  _ until we met our other irreplaceable partner.”

“Ah, a third partner!” Her voice was intrigued. “And what necessary assets did he bring?”

Oliver glanced at Maria and then the audience. “ _ She _ .” There was an audible gasp in the room. 

_ “She…?” _ the woman drawled suggestively. “Okay. Why did you recruit  _ her  _ to your cause?”

Oliver rolled his eyes at her obvious implication, determined to make it absolutely clear that his female partner was, without a doubt, the single most valuable member of his team. “Well, at first I believed it was because of her intelligence. She’s brilliant, a genius. A technical prodigy.” He heard the ring of pride in his voice. It was the first time he’d ever publicly admitted to the existence of Overwatch, and he was surprised at how excited he was for people to learn about her.

“She sounds amazing.” Her voice sounded slightly wistful. If Oliver didn’t know better, he’d guess she sounded a little jealous.

He smiled. “You have no idea.”

The line was quiet for a moment, and Oliver closed his eyes, imagining what she must look like at that moment, a flush creeping up her neck. He made a mental note to spend more time telling Felicity how amazing she was.  When she spoke again, her tone was less playful, more tentative. “But if I’m hearing you correctly, it seems as though it wasn’t her technical prowess that made you recruit her to your team?”

Oliver sighed. “If I’m being completely honest, no. Not that her brilliance wasn’t an asset from the start, because it was. But her technical abilities were only part of what she brought. I quickly came to rely on her in a hundred small ways without even realizing I’d become so dependent, but it was still a long time later when I finally realized that even at the beginning, I was coming up with every possible excuse to seek her assistance, because I needed something  _ else  _ from her.”

“And what was that?”

“She...she had a way of putting things into perspective.” Oliver ran his eyes over the audience, absently noting their rapt expressions. “I would get so stuck in seeing a problem one way, and all I needed to do was hear her perspective, and suddenly everything would be different. She always had a way of making the most difficult problems seem simple.”

“So her intelligence, like you said.”

“Yes, but not only that. There was just something about her. She woke something up inside me whenever I saw her.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the line, but Oliver remained completely focused, waiting on her response. “Sounds like you were in love with her.”

Oliver closed his eyes, suddenly transported to the past, remembering the sense of clarity and awe he had felt when he finally let himself realize it. “I  _ was  _ in love with her. But I fought it for a very, very long time.”

She released a long breath, as if she had been holding it. “Why did you do that? You have a pretty well-known reputation. It’s not like the Oliver Queen we all know to show restraint where women are concerned.” The teasing tone was back in her voice, but Oliver refused to rise to her bait.

“She isn’t like other women.” 

She snorted a laugh. “You didn’t think she would reject you, did you?”

Oliver smiled, remembering Felicity’s obvious admiration for his salmon ladder workouts, and the adorable accidental innuendos that used to slip so frequently from her lips. “No, it wasn’t that, it was...I wasn’t worthy of her, not like that.”

“Surely she didn’t believe  _ that.” _ Her tone was flat.

Oliver took a deep breath, calm despite the fact that he was so publicly revealing feelings that had remained private for so long. Somehow, it felt right. If he was truly going to go public as the Green Arrow, people needed to understand that the Green Arrow was more than just one person; it was even more than the team made up of the three of them. At its core, it was  _ this. _ It was the faith they had in each other. “No. She believed in me. She believed in who I could be. But I couldn’t admit that I loved her...not even to myself...until I believed in myself, too. And that was the most important thing she did for the Arrow, for me. She believed I could be better. And she made me  _ want  _ to be better. And she showed me how.”

The line was quiet for the space of several of Oliver’s elevated heartbeats as he waited for her response. “Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“So then what happened? Did you tell her how you felt?”

Oliver paused, feeling the tortured weight of a protracted year filled with almost-confessions, before dismissing it from his mind completely. “I did.”

She didn’t respond for a moment, and Oliver wondered if she was similarly caught up in heavy memories. 

But then she stepped out onto the sound stage, emerging from a side door. Oliver’s breath caught in his throat and the studio audience collectively gasped as they put the pieces together. “Did she feel the same way?” 

Oliver stayed in his seat, his eyes locked with hers. “She did.”

“And then what happened?” She started stalking toward him, still speaking on the phone, her projected voice slightly delayed like a natural echo. “It seems to me like maybe you should have married her.” 

She stopped a few strides from him and he looked steadily back at her as she lowered the phone and disconnected the call. He stood up slowly and held his hand out as he crossed to her with a small smile on his face. “I did.” 

He placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “I thought you were still in Central City.”

“I took an early flight. I was on my way home when I heard your voice on the radio.” She raised her eyes to find him looking at her in that private, adoring way of his. She smiled back for a long moment, both aware of and yet uncaring of their attentive audience. 

Finally, Oliver turned, letting his hand slide from Felicity’s shoulder to interlace with her fingers. “Maria, I don’t believe you’ve met Felicity Smoak?”

The host stepped from behind her desk. “No, I haven’t. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Smoak!”

Felicity reached forward, shaking the host’s hand graciously. “Felicity Smoak Queen, actually.” 

Maria stepped back, a slightly dazed expression on her face. 

Oliver half-turned to face the audience, making it clear that his words were for them as much as they were for Felicity, the caller on the line who was no longer on the line. “So as I was saying, I was never alone as the Green Arrow, or the Arrow, or the Hood, or the vigilante. I had a partner who was there with me through it all.” He turned his head to meet Felicity’s eyes. “I could never have done any of it without her.”

Felicity smiled, returning his private gaze while pitching her voice for the audience’s benefit. “It’s true, there are a lot of criminals you never could have tracked down, a lot of buildings you couldn’t have entered, a lot of cases you couldn’t have solved, if there hadn’t been someone to lend,” she wiggled her fingers in front of her face, “technological assistance.”

Oliver tilted his head theatrically. “That, too.” 

Felicity raised her eyebrow, playing along. “What else?”

“Well, you were always there for me to  _ confide  _ in.” He reached out and poked her shoulder with his index finger.

“Mmm.” She couldn’t stop the smile that was tugging at her lips.

He raked his eyes down her body, smiling suggestively. “And when I was wounded you always took care of my  _ body.” _

Felicity bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing out loud. “I have gotten really good at suturing. And applying bandages. And I did have that crash course in defibrillation, which is still one of my least favorite skills to put to use.”

Oliver was outright grinning at her. “At least your bedside manner has improved.”

“Hey! In my defense you used to be a terrible patient.” She cocked her head. “You’ve gotten a  _ little  _ better, I guess.”

Oliver gazed down at her warmly, letting the teasing tone drain out of his voice. “And of course your brilliance extends way beyond your technical genius. You’ve inspired some of my best plans, and come up with just as many on your own.”

“Hmm.” She reached up and laid a hand on his cheek. “We are a good team that way.”

“We’re a good team in all ways.” 

“And we always have been.”

“Always.”

They let the moment stretch between them, private yet on full display, and after all it turned out to be not so different from anything else. They had always been able to be alone together in a crowded room, just as their way of being together had always attracted attention that they easily tuned out. 

Eventually they let themselves acknowledge their audience, and Felicity quirked her lips, signalling that she had a plan. She pulled away from Oliver and stepped up to the microphone that was still set up from the Q&A. 

“I have one more question. Is that all right?” She looked to the host for permission.

Maria looked surprised for a second, then gave a hasty nod.

Felicity looked directly at Oliver. “Hi. My name’s Felicity and I was wondering, will you kiss me?”

Oliver bit his bottom lip to stop himself from smiling. “Well, as I said earlier, I’m married.”

Felicity utterly failed at keeping a straight face as she whispered dramatically, “But I’m in  _ love  _ with you.”

Oliver’s face lit up with a rare huge smile. “Then it’s a good thing you’re my wife.”

Felicity crossed toward him and Oliver leaned down, deftly removing the microphone from his coat with one hand while cupping her neck with the other, pulling her mouth to his. After several soft kisses, he leaned back just enough so their noses brushed, keeping his eyes closed and enjoying the shared sense of intimacy despite the fact that they were being broadcast on live television. He felt the familiar puff of Felicity’s breath over his lips. After a moment he drew back slowly, opening his eyes and holding her gaze. “Was it as good as you hoped?”

“Better. Always better.”

Oliver turned to the television host. “Maria, we’re done here, right? I haven’t seen my wife in four days, and we have some catching up to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read my stuff you might have noticed I have a slight side-fascination with the idea of how Oliver, Felicity, and all are viewed by the public (in the show, I mean). So I was absolutely already intended to write something like this now that Oliver's out of prison and everyone knows his secret. BUT THEN I saw the promos for 7x10...AND THEN I read the description for 7x12!!!! And I just knew if I wanted to write this, I had to act fast. So here ya go. I have NO IDEA if this was even any good, but I wrote it for me, dammit :D
> 
> But if you enjoyed it, do please let me know!!


End file.
